UNIX Made Easy: The Basics & Beyond! (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This large book, written by a long-time Unix consultant and his staff, can serve as a fine in-house training guide and reference tool. By interspersing how-to information and reference tables with brief quizzes and exercises, the authors of Unix Made Easy make it more likely that readers will retain information. System administrators might want to think about giving or loaning this book to all Unix newbies under their care.

The guide opens with a quick tour of Unix that includes logging in, exploring directory structures, creating files, and other basic jobs. Then, the authors explain vi using conceptual drawings that are superior for a computer book. Unfortunately, Unix Made Easydoesn't cover other editors as well, although it provides plenty of details on and excellent conceptual drawings of editing aids grep, sed, and awk.

The book's final chapters teach individual tasks, such as printing, using online help, and using Motif. In the section about using the Internet, the exercises (such as using FTP to get a list of mailing lists) make the last part of this book as much a guide to the global network as a guide to Unix. Unix Made Easy covers only two Web browsers--Mosaic and Lynx--before wrapping up with an appetite-whetting taste of C and Korn shell programming and environment modification.

Product Description

Written as a tutorial, this improved edition of UNIX Made Easy, Second Edition provides updated coverage, including new UNIX features such as the X Window System, current improvements to UNIX SVR4, and Internet connectivity options.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1061 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2nd edition (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0078821738
• ISBN-13: 978-0078821738
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,122,873 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Teacher's Experience, September 2, 2004

By	Pat LLoyd "teacher" (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: UNIX Made Easy (Paperback)

I have been teaching with this book for many years, over 700 students. Class evaluations always rate the book very highly with comments about how clear explanations are. Students learn so much doing the exercises that class discussions are at a much higher level. We use this text in classroom and internet distance learning with great success. The few students over the years who had trouble in the class were trying to avoid doing the work by just looking up answers. That approach isnot effective because the book is built skill upon skill. Students must start at the beginning and actually do the work at the terminal. At first a few students tried to just read it. That approach did not work either. Now I make it very clear that the book is a detailed, hands-on, guide coupled with exact explanations. It must be worked through carefully, at the terminal. When students are willing to put in the effort and do that, they are well rewarded with knowledge and the ability to really do UNIX. I suspect the two reviewers who found the book difficult were not using it properly. My students love it.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Novices, July 14, 1999

By	"butterfi" (Fairfax, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I have come back to this book more times then I can count. Its a great book for building basic Unix skills, and a nice introduction to shell programming. John is also an excellent teacher, and for anyone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, look for Johns "Unix Made Easy" class at the UC Berekely Extension. Two thumbs up!

Now if we can just get John to write a book on system administration...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a way to learn UNIX, not a reference book, April 30, 2001

By A Customer

This book is seen as the essential learning tool around here. It guides us along without pain to the place where we are really quite confident and quite skilled. Clearly it must be used hands on -- at the terminal -- it gives instructions, then explanations in a way that knowledge and skills grow quickly. It is obvious that the authors know a lot about how people learn and how to support that learning.

Although not a reference book, command summaries are located at the ends of all chapters and the index is extensive allowing us to go back to look at a topic easily.

Can't understand why it isn't 5 stars from everyone. Lots of good concise reference books out there -- this one does not attempt to be that. This book is like a tutor, but costs a lot less.